Mass Effect 2 Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

To begin this final mission before you jump through the Omega-4 Mass Relay, head to the third floor of the Normandy, the Crew Quarters. Go to Dr. Chakwas' medical office. The previously-sealed door at the back end of the office is now open. Head on through, and you'll find the Geth body sitting on a table (Joker saw this earlier when defending the ship from the Reapers). Walk up to it and examine it, and Shepard will activate it, though not before erecting a barrier to protect himself, just in case. Speaking with this Geth, who will eventually be known as Legion (because of the Geth hive-mind mentality), results in an interesting cutscene. You'll learn that the Geth are having a civil war of sorts. Geth like Legion want to leave "organics" alone, while Reapers have subverted "heretic" Geth into doing their anti-organic bidding. Thus, there are two distinct types of Geth. One group is neutral, and the other is overtly anti-organic in nature.

Upon speaking with Legion again following the introductory conversation, you'll learn that there's a way to stop the "heretic" Geth from doing any more damage. The heretics are planning to use their FTL communication buoys to spread a virus around to neutral Geth, to change their mode of thinking. This can happen rather easily, but Legion has an idea to stop it. Doing so will require you to travel to an all-new part of the galaxy we've yet to have access to, a place called the Phoenix Massing. Upon jumping there, you'll be in the Tassrah system, but you need to use sub-light travel to hit one of its sister systems up, a place with the foreboding name of the Sea of Storms. The only object of interest in this nebula is a place called Heretic Station. This is where the heretic Geth have placed the virus they're going to unleash, in this old Quarian space station. Land there to proceed.

When you land on the ship, you'll witness another brief cutscene before you gain control and are able to head through Heretic Station. (By the way, we took Tali to this mission with Legion, for massive lulz. Remember -- Quarians created the Geth, and they loathe them.) Legion will explain to Shepard how the alarm system in the station works. The Geth shouldn't be privy to the covert crew's presence anywhere but where they currently are, meaning that they can't gang up on you. Of course, once you reach the core, this all changes. Legion also lets Shepard know that the virus is finished, so it can be destroyed, or reprogrammed and used on the heretics to pacify them. Navigate that conversation however you'd like; you can deal with what you want to do with the virus once you get to its location, which is still a ways off.

Head forward from your starting position. You'll see a ramp on your right leading downward. Pillage the medical kit at the top of the ramp, and then head down into the next room. Here, Legion will inform you of the typical Geth defense mechanism onboard this ship. They will come at you in a room-by-room manner, not networked. So, you could conceivably get the jump on the Geth in every location you explore before they even know you're there, by destroying the hardware pods they come out of. In this room, the hardware pod is located to the right of the door on the far side of the room. Quickly approach and destroy it. If you aren't quick, you'll have to fight some Geth, including a couple of Geth Hunters. Either way, once the pod is destroyed, you should approach it and examine it. Doing so will net you several thousand credits, and it will also catalyze another cutscene with Legion, where he talks about Geth networking, memory sharing, and the like. Navigate that conversation, as always, however you'd like.